A new Runemagick album is always a source of great pleasure for me. One of the most prolific, yet still obscure bands since the turn of the century, the masters of dread atmosphere have been plying their wares since the year 1991. They’re a rather fantastic outfit (and one which I tend to bore my friends about, yet still out of spite they refuse to listen to them), with a brilliant discography, a sound which is uncompromising and a style all of their own.

I make “Beyond the Cenotaph of Mankind” their 13th release, and by that time most bands are running out of steam. Not so Runemagick. It’d be wrong to say that this is a “fresh” sounding record; quite the opposite, actually. This is a stygian release; a record that brings to mind flickering torches in caverns. This is the sound of a band doing exactly what they want.

Jaunty twelve minute epic opener “Archaic Magick” sets the tone appropriately. Smatterings of early death metal, more riffs than a Ralph McTell compendium and the atmosphere of early Black Sabbath on extreme painkillers, it’s a trawl through some subterranean vibes. Imagine a death/doom soundtrack to some evil wizard trawling his way through a library full of books covered in human skin. It doesn’t get any more cheerful with “Endless Night and Eternal End”, which manages to cipher the spirit of early NwoBHM nastiness and pours it into a bottle shaped from early 90s underground obscurity. The tremolo riffing meets Autopsy rhythms; early black metal gonzo axework colliding headlong into sickened death metal drum work. It really shouldn’t work: yet it does.

“Revocation of Spectral Paths” slows things riiiiiiight down, the crawling pace like a drugged-out Candlemass crawling along a stone floor. Emma’s bass is the star of the show here, filling so much space with its deathly fuzz. Nicklas’ voice is in fine form here too – one of the most instantly recognisable of the old school growlers, his perfect enunciation seems to defy the extent to which his drawl terrifies in its ferocity. “The Storm Rode Beyond The Firmament”, despite sounding like an Immortal B-Side title, is again essentially the sound of unbridled evil. Huge call here for the drums to really make the track; the space in-between the haunting six-string work allows for some incredible skin-work to happen. This has to be one of the best doom-drumming performances of the last few years. So much is done in the context of an almost glacial pace.

“Nocturnal Deities of Winter” continues the theme of song titles that sound as if Abbath wrote them on the back of his denim jacket, but once again this is a real dredge through the darker sections of the metal underground. It’s probably the heaviest track on the record, sounding like something off Paradise Lost’s “Gothic”, but tuned down several steps, played at half speed and performed by psychopaths. The title track closes proceedings with the spookiest offering from an album that’s pretty unsettling as it is. It’s here more than anywhere else that the sheer weird occult nature of Runemagick shines through. There are a lot of bands that claim to be from the underground, but goddamn if Runemagick don’t just sound like the very definition of it. A wilfully obscure, cryptic track that makes their peers (if indeed any truly exist) sound like elevator music.

Then, a mere six tracks in, it’s all over. Done. Just the smell of incense, the feeling that something has crawled back into the shadows and the hairs on the back of your neck standing up. Horror music. Terror. Essential.

(9/10 Chris Davison)

https://www.facebook.com/runemagick

https://runemagick.bandcamp.com/album/beyond-the-cenotaph-of-mankind-2